Speaker:  Dr. Sebastian Pokutta

Title:
Information Theory and Polyhedral Combinatorics

Abstract:
Information theory is a powerful tool to analyze the behavior of communication systems. However, its applicability goes far beyond this and more recently many important problems in theoretical computer science as well as optimization have been addressed by means of information theory. We provide a new framework for establishing strong lower bounds on the nonnegative rank of matrices by means of common information, a notion previously introduced in Wyner [1975]. Common information is a natural lower bound for the nonnegative rank of a matrix and by combining it with Hellinger distance estimations we can compute the (almost) exact common information of UDISJ partial matrix, a special matrix that is of high interest in communication complexity and extended formulations. 

Speaker Bio:
Sebastian Pokutta's research concentrates on combinatorial optimization, polyhedral combinatoris, and information theory, and in particular focuses on cutting-plane methods and extended formulations. These methods are essential to solving large-scale optimization problems with combinatorial aspects as they allow for recovering crucial information on the structure of optimal solutions. His applied work focuses on the combination of optimization methods with state-of-the-art techniques from information theory with applications in the broader field of engineering.

Sebastian Pokutta is an assistant professor in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech. He received both his master’s degree and Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany. Subsequent to his graduate studies, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the MIT Operations Research Center where the topic of his research was combinatorial optimization and cutting plane procedures. Upon completion of his postdoctoral fellowship at MIT, Pokutta was appointed as an optimization specialist at ILOG where he worked on production planning and supply chain optimization within the steel industry, automotive industry, and energy industry. In early 2008, he joined KDB Krall Demmel Baumgarten, a state-of-the art risk management practice, and developed risk management methodologies at top tier banks. Prior to joining the Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nürnberg as an assistant professor in 2011 he was a visiting lecturer at MIT.